If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. - George Orwell

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Blaming others

The Amnesty International report on human rights for the year 2007 is out. The Muslim world constitutes, as usual, bleakest chapter. Every single country across the Muslim world has been pointed out by the Amnesty International either for executions and torture or discrimination against women and ethnic and religious minorities. Punishments never handed down even during the Stone Age, have been awarded in 21st century Muslim world. In one case, two Saudi nationals were awarded 7,000 lashes. Yes, 7,000. And executions? Well, 335 in Iran, 158 in Saudi Arabia and 135 in Pakistan. Violation of human rights, it seems, is the only thing that unites the otherwise divided Muslim world.

The report is no exception. The Muslim world cuts a sorry figure every time a global watchdog releases its findings. Freedom of expression here remains curtailed, Reporters Sans Frontieres annually reports. Regarding freedom of expression, there is a joke often told in Arab world. At a meeting, a US journalist says: "We have complete freedom of expression in the US. We can criticise the US president as much as we like." The Arab journalist replies. "We also have complete freedom of expression in Arab world. We can also criticise the US president as much as we like."

Similarly, it is either Bangladesh or Pakistan or Nigeria which is on top of Transparency International's corruption indexes. However, when Nobel laureates gather in Stockholm every December, Muslim scientists and writers are conspicuous by their absence. In case, as Naguib Mahfouz is crowned, he is stabbed and rendered paralysed. The irony, or tragedy, is that his attacker had not even read his excellent books. Or we disown Dr Abdul Salam just because he belonged to the Ahmadiya community. Salam's case deserves special mention since it underlines the absurdity that characterises this part of the world.

When all else fails, "Jews" and "Christian" West are there to lay the blame for all our ills. Conspiracy theories instead of scientific, rational thought holds sway across much of the Muslim world. And every time a rights abuse is highlighted in Iran, Saudi Arabia or Pakistan, a typical Muslim answer is: Look at Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and Chechnya. True, imperialism and Zionism have a hand in our predicament. However, there are many wounds one can only describe as self-inflicted.

Take, for instance, the Iran-Iraq war, one of the last century's bloodiest conflicts. There is no denying the fact that the United States backed the Saddam regime. But it was the Arab sheikhdoms, panicked at the Iranian revolution, that stoked the flames of war. And, ironically, now in the post-Saddam era when the "Christian" West has written off Iraq's Saddam-era debt worth $66 billion, Iraq's Arab brothers refuse to write off that country's $67 billion loans.

Similarly, last century's bloodiest Muslim genocide was not carried out by Serbs, Israelis, Americans, Europeans or Hindus. It was Pakistan's military that refused to respect a democratic verdict and plunged East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, into an ocean of blood. Millions were killed, maimed, raped and rendered homeless. Luckily, Pakistan has a "Hindu" neighbour. "Hindus are born enemies of Islam'. Hence, Pakistani children are now taught that a Bengali traitor (revered by Bengalis as founder of Bangladesh), in connivance with our "Hindu" neighbour, dismembered Pakistan. Ironically, of all her South Asian neighbours, Pakistan enjoys most cordial relations with the world's only Hindu state, Nepal. The other big genocide was perpetrated by Indonesia. The target was: its own citizens who were members of the Communist Party.

Figures are not available but Israel perhaps cannot match Iran in executing Arabs. Iran's confessional regime is a champion of the Arab cause in Occupied Territories but Arabs of its Khuzestan province are regularly sent to the gallows. Seizing the opportunity, one may also point out how only recently Afghan refugees were driven out of Iran as if Afghan refugees were not as Muslim as Palestinians. And, by the way in the fallen "Emirate of Afghanistan" itself, Hazaras were slaughtered by the Taliban in their thousands almost a decade ago – mainly because Hazaras are Shia. In Iraq, more people have been killed in Shia-Sunni clashes than in resisting the US occupation. Shia-Sunni clashes in Pakistan have claimed more lives than those lost in its wars against India. Ironically, this only "nuclear power" of the Muslim world is not being occupied on its eastern front by its "Hindu" neighbour but is losing territory on its western front to its own citizens.

One can mention from the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait to the recent Hamas-Fatah infighting (a shameful tribute to Israel on its 60th anniversary). The list is long. Indeed, unending. However, the solution to all our problems is always simple: return to an imagined past which, mercifully for the people of the seventh century, never existed. Every time, a scientist in the West is ready with an invention, our readymade answer is: we knew about it 1,400 years ago what the West has found only now. We kill Theo van Gogh when confronted with a film. We burn down our own cities in response to a blasphemous and racist caricature. Still, we refuse to understand that our answer to every "provocation" is either a fatwa or mindless violence – perhaps because creativity is anathema to us. Not because we lack fertile minds, but because we lack liberation and freedom -- liberation from self-imposed mental, moral, and cultural censors. And freedom to think and express. Time to heed the great Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani, who said:

Five thousand years

Growing beards

In our caves.

Our currency is unknown,

Our eyes are a haven for flies.

Friends,

Smash the doors,

Wash your brains,

Wash your clothes.

Friends,

Read a book,

Write a book,

Grow words, pomegranates and grapes,

Sail to the country of fog and snow.

Nobody knows you exist in caves.

People take you for a breed of mongrels.

The writer is a freelance contributor. Email: mfsulehria@hotmail.com To go to source click here

5 comments:

I have sex with my younger brother for 1 year. Husband knew about and take me to police and court. Thank you Maumoon forgived me because my brother is grow up 15 year old. If here it is bloody wahhabi government me and my brother going to be killed with throwing stones. Not freedom. I love my husband very very much still.

2) Lack of freedom of expression in the middle east has little to do with Islam.. so cut the 'Muslim world' crap. You mean the Arab world.

3) Corruption is anti-Islamic.. just shows the lack of true Islam in the daily lives of citizens of those countries you named.

4) Muslim writers are not 'conspicuous by their absence' at the Nobel prize, which isn't a religious prize anyway. Literary heavyweights like Orhan Pamuk and Khaled Hosseini do come from that part of the world.

Human rights violations should be taken with the same seriousness everywhere..If 10,000 peoples rights are horrifically violated, it might deserve 10,000 times the condemnation of 1 persons violation.

7) In the post-Saddam era, Iraq lies bereft of all its infrastructure, on the verge of a civil war, with ethnic tensions higher than at any point in history. All thanks to the ill conceived American war. After hundreds of thousands killed, and a country left to be built from scratch.. $66billion seems a very small compensation.

8) Nepal is no longer a Hindu state.. it's a secular republic.

9) You're giving religious hues to a political decision. '.. as if Afghan refugees were not as Muslim as Palestinians...'

As much as you'd like to wish otherwise, the Iranian government reserves the right to restrict foreign nationals entry into its territory, for whatever reason. What does Islam have to do with that?

10) Correction. "WE" did not kill Theo Van Gogh, some fanatic did."OUR" response was not a fatwa or mindless violence. It was inaction against those who did.

The time is not to blame the entire 'Muslim world' for the action of these fanatics. It's to mobilize the general public and the so called silent majority into a response against such characters.

Use 'Islam' in every other sentence in unrelated subjects ranging from corruption to refugees to political trouble.. and you confirm yourself to be an Islamophobe.

"You might have overlooked the American statistic - 1106 executions" Do you think you can throw around a figure and the world will believe it without question? The figures given in the post by Dhivehi Resistance were for the year 2007 alone. How did you invent 1106 for the US? Was it since the creation of the Union or what? As far as I know 121 people were judicially executed in the US (none extra-judicially) in the 21st century. A quick search of public databases will soon tell you the names of these people. It took me 30 seconds to find; it may take you slightly longer.

Yes Islam killed van Gogh. The murderer was simply following the Sunnah of Mohamed established first by the murder of Asmaa bint Marwan. Mohamed accused Asmaa of ridiculing Islam (same allegation against van Gogh) and she was murdered as she laid breast feeding her baby. When the murderer showed remorse Mohamed comforted him saying "two goats would not butt their heads for her".

Iran continues to occupy Arab lands in Khozestan, much bigger than the disputed territories of Gaza or the West Bank.

True, Nepal is now a secular republic. At least they had the good sense to join the 21st century. The last Islamic country that became secular was Bangladesh in 1971. It has since reverted to 7th century barbarism.

"The strongest proof of real, extremely despotic power in Islam is the fact that it has been able to invalidate, in such large measure, the entire history (customs, religion, previous way of looking at things, earlier imagination) of the peoples converted to it. It accomplished this only by instilling into them a new religious arrogance which was stronger than everything and induced them to be ashamed of their past."

"Is the fate of gradually becoming an Arab nation the Maldive Islanders' only option?This is the Maldivian dilemma since they made the decision to accept the Arabs as their undisputed cultural masters and began to sever their links with their own past.Nowadays Maldivians are culturally restless people who can never be at ease.The intense indoctrination of the 1980s and 90s, when Islamization was imposed on the islands at a much higher gear than at any time in the nation's history, has made Maldivians feel uncozy in their own country.The changes brought about have been of such magnitude and in such a short time, that there is now a whole young generation of Divehi people who, having not known how things were previously, take for granted that their home nation has always been so orthodox and impersonal."

- Xavier Romero-Frias in THE MALDIVE ISLANDERS, A Study of the Popular Culture of an Ancient Ocean Kingdom

"The Islamic conquerors took everything from the newly conquered: money, language, culture, traditions, wives, children, values. Everything. The nature of Islam is that it replaces cultures wherever it gets a foothold."

150 Maldivian Adulteresses To Be Flogged

Stop the Islamic religious duty of Fuc-Kendun in Maldives!

When a husband pronounced his wife divorce three times “thrice divorced” and wants to remarry her, he cannot do it lawfully until he pays another man “Al Mohalil”(which means the legalizer) who marries this thrice divorced woman and (had sexual intercourse or consummating the marriage with her) and then dismisses her so that she may lawfully marry her former husband.

In Quran sura al-Baqara 2:230 says,”…So if a husband divorced his wife he cannot after that remarry her until after she has married another husband, and he has divorced her, in that case there is no blame on either of them if they reunite…”

Abu Dawud (2142) - "The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) said: A man will not be asked as to why he beat his wife."

ISLAMIC FUK-KENDUN IS A MORAL AND PHYSICAL RAPE.

In Islam a husband can reunite with his wife after divorcing her under this condition: When a woman is divorced irrevocably, she can not return to her husband until she marries (including having sexual intercourse) with another man. "Narrated Aisha: The wife of Rifaa Al-Qurazi came to Allah's Apostle and said, 'O Allah's Apostle, Rifaa divorced me irrevocably. After him I married Abdur-Rahman bin Az-Zubair Al-Qurazi who proved to be impotent.' Allah's Apostle said to her, 'Perhaps you want to return to Rifaa? Nay (You cannot return to Rifaa ) until you and Abdur-Rahman (the impotent man) engage in sexual intercourse! '" Vol. 7:186

The making of the ancient Dhivehi island people into semi-Arab Muslims

How Dhivehi minds are groomed to become lifelong zombies that they can't apply minimum logic and reason to discover numerous obvious errors and contradictions in the Quran and Hadith and that they consider the most horrendous, unethical and barbarous actions of Muhammad as acts of great morality and humanity...

Did you know ?

Until about 100 years ago in Divehi we didn't say "salaan kurun"?We said Namaskaarakurun or Swasti(Swasti = Peace)

men & women are equal in Islam?

Women cannot touch the Koran during certain days because they are unclean

Dhivehistanis want to conquer the world for Allah

"Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into (the hearts of) the enemies, of Allah and your enemies..." -- Koran 8:60

Muslim Arab missionaries and Dhivehi collaborateurs

Muslims cite Islamic taboos and Koranic injections as more important than freedom of thinking. Freedom of expression is and always has been subject to Islamic taboos. Islamic taboos exist to keep Muslims from thinking independently and these taboos are enforced by Mullahs and Islamic rulers. Those who oppose are silenced or beheaded. Public expression against Mohammed or Allah will be labeled as apostate and those dissenters will be severely punished. Strict censorship is imposed on TV, film, magazines and newspapers by religious bodies and by the government.

"If a book be false in its facts, disprove them; if false in its reasoning, refute it. But for God's sake, let us freely hear both sides if we choose". -Thomas Jefferson, third US president, architect, and author (1743-1826)

“If these writings of the Greeks agree with the book of God, they are useless and need not be preserved; if they disagree, they are pernicious and ought to be destroyed”. - Umar the Caliph of Islam after the conquest of Alexandria in 641, ordered the great library to be destroyed.

The books were then used to heat the furnaces of the numerous bath-houses of the city.

Maldives Minister of Islamic Affairs says

"Shari’ah law ultimately requires the killing of those who leave Islam."

All smiles after being found guilty of massacring 52 Hindus in a 2003 bombing, Hanif Anees is also quite dedicated to his religion. (Care to guess which one?)

Maldives Constitution: No Citizenship for non-Muslims

Article 9, Section D : “a non-Muslim may not become a citizen of the Maldives.”

By denying citizenship to some people on the basis of their religion, the country is violating religious minorities’ freedom of worship.

“This denial of citizenship to non-Muslims is an extraordinarily harsh measure which places the Maldives among the worst countries in the world in regards to the legal foundation for freedom of religion and belief,”

What does the Koran say about Jihad?

In Islam's 3 Holy Books: 97% references to jihad relate to holy war; while only 3% relate to inner struggle

"Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyzes the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world." -- Sir Winston Churchill - circa 1899